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bottleneck for strategic naval stores en route from the Baltic to France. Anglo-French relations deteriorated rapidly after American independence (4 July 1776), and already in June 1777, Vergennes was quietly accepting the prospect of war. By early March 1778, France had a secret alliance with the young Republic. The news soon leaked out, and on 13 March, the French ambassador in London, the Marquis de Noailles. gave it formal acknowledgement. The outcome was predictable. George III recalled his ambassador from Versailles and the fight Was on. 134

In the first important naval engagement ofthe war (27 July 1778), the match Was drawn. The French navy, carefully reformed by Choiseul, Sartine. and Castries, carried itself with so much distinction that the young Louis XVI at once dashed off a letter Of congratulation to the admiral. 135 The struggle to control the high seas, however. turned to attrition. Navies required maintenance; the best naval stores came from the Baltic•, and the delivery of these supplies called on the ready services and commercial competence of merchants, not Icast in Amsterdam. However, Che trade in war materials set a dilemma of political conscience for The Netherlands: was it to support one ofthe belligerents. or remain an honest broker?

Neutrality had been effective and rewarding in the Seven Years' War; now the stakes were higher. Most still favoured neutrality, but as the dispute spread, the gravamen touched all levels of activity in The Netherlands. Some favoured France, others followed an open line for Britain. Eddies and Currents of interests carried opinions, swayed assemblies. Merchants with business to pursue; bondholders with commitments to swelling public debts, aristocrats with family connections — these militated for divided loyalties. And the lobbies became both powerful and vocal. The news of the Franco—American alliance (March 1778) Was enough to push up the blood-pressure of the anglophile Fagel, greffier of the Republic,136 for the Stadhouder and his party stood for Britain. In Amsterdam, the merchants lost no time in joimng a wave of speculation in commodities, especially those of colonial America. 137 The City favoured France. According to the grand pensionary van Berckel in a Memorie to push the case to the States of Holland and West Friesland (16 December 1778), the trade with France was seventeen times that with Britain: and it sustained a major part of the deliveries to Germany and the Rhineland. 138